Brown v Board of Education and Civil Rights Moment by Michael Klarman

The thesis of Klarman’s Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Moment is that Brown v. Board of Education was a pivotal and massively important moment in American history—but not for the reasons that are typically given. The common understanding of Brown v. Board of Education is that it ended segregation in schools and helped make America a more equal place. Klarman views this is a very superficial approach to the subject, somewhat like a myth and one that needs to be dispelled. He begins by bringing up the dominant theme of the book—racism—which Klarman points out had remained “strong in the North in the years after the Civil War.”[footnoteRef:2] Racism was not just a regional issue; rather, it had been entrenched in American politics throughout the country and to a large degree it was institutionalized. The Jim Crow Era was proof of the institutionalization of racism and even at the Supreme Court level, the justices were sympathetic more towards “the white southerners, ‘who are to be coerced out of segregation,’ than with blacks, ‘who are coerced into it.’”[footnoteRef:3] The decision rendered in the court case was supported by the majority of the American public, polls showed.[footnoteRef:4] The Justices were not going against the grain of American sentiment or popular opinion by ending segregation in schools. However, they were concerned that they might be moving too far too fast. [2: Michael Klarman, Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Moment (Oxford University Press, 2007), 1898.] [3: Michael Klarman, Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Moment (Oxford University Press, 2007), 1876.] [4: Michael Klarman, Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Moment (Oxford University Press, 2007), 1890.]

Klarman’s point is that had they made this decision a decade earlier, there would have been more blowback from the public, more resistance. Though slavery had ended, segregation had still been a core feature of American society for nearly century following the Civil War. Desegregation was sure to lead to an upheaval, a destabilization of society as the status quo came crashing down—that was the main feeling throughout much of the first half of the 20th century. Was the nation ready for it? Were its leaders? Was there any stopping it? These are the questions and themes that run through Klarman’s book, showing that the epic push for validation and equality that stretched from through from the era of Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement was like a long, slow rolling freight train that could not be stopped and that many leaders in America were scratching their heads over while doing everything they could to derail the train or prevent it from moving forward.
The decision in Brown v. Board of Education was an attempt by the justices to get out in front of the issue of segregation—but what they found was that by the time they got their the movement was already way out in front of them. By the 1950s, American society had altered so much in its attitudes towards race that segregation seemed more important only to a minority of people in the country than to the majority. World War II had helped to change attitudes. Americans had fought Germany, which was painted as a racist nation that wanted to promote a white Aryan race only and exterminate all other races. Americans viewed this idea as abominable. Hollywood promoted a de-segregated vision of the American military with the film The Negro Soldier, produced by Frank Capra. That film alone did much to change the minds of many Americans about the black population, which prior to that film had primarily been depicted as clownish, oafish and for comic relief in cinema; suddenly, in the 1940s with a war being waged against Racism in Europe (just like today wars are waged against Terrorism in the Middle East), Uncle Sam wanted blacks to support the war effort and wanted whites to accept them—so the propaganda machine turned a new leaf and produced a film that was highly favorable towards blacks as honorable, decent, virtuous and civil.[footnoteRef:5] Klarman shows that Brown was not “the origin of the modern civil rights movement” as is often believed but that instead the contributions that Brown made to the movement in the 1960s “were mostly counterintuitive and, occasionally, almost perverse.”[footnoteRef:6] In other words, Brown was not organic to the actual movement towards equality in America: that movement had been around since the 1940s at least. The Supreme Court was late to the party, and then when it did arrive it sought to set the rules for the party-goers and ended up causing more problems than would have existed had the Court let well enough alone. [5: Kathleen M. German, Promises of Citizenship (University Press of Mississippi, 2017), 41.] [6: Michael Klarman, Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Moment (Oxford University Press, 2007), 1890.]
The book fits in with the historiography rather well. Klarman’s assessment of the situation of race relations in America after WWII aligns with German’s. Both see the war as instrumental in having a “transformative impact on American race relations.”[footnoteRef:7] Cripps and Culbert agree: they show in their assessment of race relations in the post-war era that people did not think of a need for social segregation anymore. Blacks had become essential to white culture especially through music and the war had helped to put racial ideology aside. Racism was not as entrenched as it had been prior to the war.[footnoteRef:8] Klarman’s book agrees with these points and underscores them. Klarman suggests it was the war that had more of an effect on attitudes towards segregation than did Brown v. Board of Education. With the court case, the Justices were trying to steer a movement that was already alive and on its own way. The Court found itself trying to appease certain elements of racism that still existed while giving a bone to blacks who were marching forward regardless. [7: Michael Klarman, Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Moment (Oxford University Press, 2007), 1890.] [8: Thomas Cripps, and David Culbert, “The Negro Soldier (1944): Film Propaganda in Black and White.” American Quarterly Vol. 31, No. 5, Special Issue: Film and American Studies (Winter, 1979), 640.]
The Justices wanted to adopt a gradual approach to segregation. They were very cognizant of the white population in the South and did not want to disturb the order that whites enjoyed in their social systems.[footnoteRef:9] At the same time, they saw the need to decide in favor of integration—the question for them was how to do it. Klarman emphasizes the sensitivity of the Justices towards the issue of race, knowing that there would be blowback, suits, and resistance from the white establishment regardless of whether the Court favored immediate integration or gradualism. [9: Michael Klarman, Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Moment (Oxford University Press, 2007), 1875.]
Klarman’s book is well-written and goes over the Brown case in terms of its direct and indirect effects, as well as the backlash that followed. He looks at the issues that came up, particularly the way the Court interpreted the 14th Amendment in order to justify its decision and why this was a problem for many. To some degree it seems that Klarman is saying that the issue of segregation would have been tackled locally by schools and school districts and states on their own had the Court simply stayed out of the matter. Perhaps by not hearing the case at all, the Court would have better served the American public and allowed the issue to be settled at the local level. Instead, the Court got involved and to some degree lit a fire where none had really been before. The decision really did not please anyone on either side of the issue and it was a sign that by trying to placate both sides of the debate the Court had swung and missed the ball. Brown II resulted as states began asking for more assistance. The Court’s language was not satisfactory and created problems for example in Virginia where desegregation was not going to be implemented in certain counties.
Overall, the book provides a great deal of insight into the politics that wnet on behind the scenes as the Court tried to deal with the issues of segregation, racism, and how to transform a society at the most basic, fundamental level—the school system. Klarman’s book suggests, ultimately, that the case probably never should have been heard and that the Court was essentially behind the curve on this one. It stuck its fingers into something that it should have stayed out of and opened up a giant can of worms that probably would have worked itself out without interference from the Court. However, that is the argument made about slavery, too—that it would have ended on its own as technology advanced and slavery no longer became economically viable. These are speculative ideas and it is hard to judge them by looking back through time, saying what the better course might have been. The fact is that Klarman’s book is well-researched and supplies a great deal of insight into what the Justices were thinking when they wrote the decision. Klarman’s looks at the impact and shows what the results were, giving a great deal of information along the way. For a reference tool it is a great source, and Klarman uses a great many primary sources to support his point. The impact of Brown v. Board of Education on the Civil Rights Movement was not necessarily what many believe it to be. The Movement was a response in many ways to the Court getting the issue of race and segregation way too politicized. The country might have thus been better served had local government simply been allowed to govern as it saw fit. That may sound problematic, but the Court was making problematic decisions too that had negative repercussions, that confused many, and that led to violence down the road.
Bibliography
Cripps, Thomas and and David Culbert. “The Negro Soldier (1944): Film Propaganda in Black and White.” American Quarterly Vol. 31, No. 5, Special Issue: Film and American Studies (Winter, 1979), pp. 616-640: The Josh Hopkins University Press.
German, Kathleen M. Promises of Citizenship: Film Recruitment of African Americans in World War 2. University Press of Mississippi, 2017.
Klarman, Michael. Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Moment. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.